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BCS Championship Game 2014: Why Florida State beat Auburn

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Florida State's Jameis Winston celebrates with The Coaches' Trophy after the NCAA BCS National Championship college football game against Auburn Monday, Jan. 6, 2014, in Pasadena, Calif. Florida State won 34-31. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Here are three reasons why Florida State won -- and why Auburn lost -- the BCS National Championship Game. The Seminoles claimed a thrilling 34-31 victory Monday night:

Why Florida State won

1. Can't deny Winston: Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston had one of his toughest games in his award-winning season, but with the game on the line, he drove Florida State 80 yards for the winning score. Winston completed 6 of 7 passes on the drive, including the game-winning 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 11 seconds left. Winston finished 20-for-35 for 237 yards and two touchdowns.

2. Better special teams: FSU's Levonte Whitfield returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to give the Seminoles their first lead, 27-24, in the fourth quarter. FSU was perfect on two field goals while Auburn's Cody Parkey missed one. Auburn had plenty of other mistakes that proved costly and barely avoided more special teams disasters (see below).

3. Defense adjusted: After getting gashed in the first half, giving up 21 points and dodging a bullet on Parkey's missed field goal, FSU was more stout in the second half, holding Auburn to 10 points, and just three before the Tigers drove to take a 31-27 lead with 1:19 left on Tre Mason's 37-yard touchdown run.

Why Auburn Lost

1. Porous pass defense returned: Auburn's defense locked up Winston in the first half, but in the second half, particularly the last drive, the defense that finished the regular season 102nd out of 123 FBS teams against the pass slumped back to regular-season form. Not only was Winston on target, two AU defenders whiffed on a tackle that allowed a short pass from Winston to Rashad Greene to turn into a 49-yard gain on the drive's second play. A pass interference call on Chris Davis in the end zone set up the touchdown.

2. Couldn't make the pass: Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall made FSU pay early for focusing on stopping the Tigers' vaunted running attack. But he finished 14-for-27 for 217 yards and had a fourth-quarter interception that set up a Florida State touchdown. At the end, Tre Mason's 195 rushing yards, including a would-be, game-winning 37-yard run with 1:19 left, weren't enough.

3. Terrible special teams: The special teams mistakes were particularly costly for Auburn. FSU climbed out of a hole late in the first quarter thanks to a roughing the punter penalty on the Tigers' Johnathan Cole that kept FSU from punting from its own 26. Parkey's missed 33-yard field goal was huge in what would become a 3-point game. And one Auburn coverage man got out of his lane while another collapsed with an apparent hamstring injury on Whitfield's long return. It could have been worse for Auburn, but three muffed punt returns by the Tigers were all recovered by Auburn.